Microbe: Are We Ready For The Next Plague?

by Alan P. Zelicoff, Michael Bellomo

Examines frailities in the current U. S. public health systems which make the country vulnerable to diseases, accidents, contamination, and bioterrorism, and proposes tools which can be used to improve diagnoses and prevent health crises.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

273 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2005

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is little more than 246 pages of self-promotion and fear mongering. The authors start with a series of descriptions of different emerging infectious diseases or disease outbreaks, which are fairly well done. If the authors would have stuck with this idea, this could have been a 4 star book. Instead, the authors take a subject which they know little to nothing about (the public health system in the US), and make a series of wild and crazy assumptions. The authors then list their proprietary software and company one of the authors works for as the ‘solution’ to the problems they identified.

The book starts well, but gets progressively worse over time. If you’re going to read it, do yourself a favor and stop after chapter 9

[Joel Justiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book includes a chapter that is an unapologetic sales pitch for software developed by one of the authors, but is engrossing nevertheless. The thesis is that with relatively simple public health monitoring tools, the public health system could deal with epidemics or bio-terrorist attacks much more effectively than it can now.

Several chapters describe different types of infectious disease outbreaks that have caused, or could have caused, serious, widespread health problems. The authors identify potential bio-terrorist agents, but conclude that conventional weapons are far more accessible to terrorists.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't what I expected, and that's not necessarily a good thing. I wanted info on new and potentially dangerous microbes, but instead got an essay on the strengths and weaknesses of the public health system. As far as essays go, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the greatest either. The examples used were repetitious and, while the authors made their point abundantly clear, they didn't offer any insights into what I - the reader - could do to help remedy the situation. Some interesting info on diseases, but otherwise, not worth re-reading.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome review of LS2 (for all you UCLA science nerds), it talks about what we have done to respond to outbreaks of new diseases/infections and whether or not we can withstand an act of bioterrorism. It was pretty interesting at points, but also had its dull moments, and there were a couple grammar/spelling errors (that drives me nuts!!!). It's a good book if you feel like you need to learn a little something (I recommend reading it after reading any of the Shopoholic series...).

[Jesselyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was just expecting (and looking for) a book about epidemics, and the inclusion of bioterrorism agent anthrax was a very interesting inclusion. Unfortunately, I'm just not terribly interested in the workings of the public health system, which is equally discussed in the book

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, but if I hadn't just taken microbiology I wouldn't have understood half of what was being talked about.